1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to sports equipment and more particularly to an improved archery arrow rest which provides adjustable angle and tension capability for the shaft-supporting portion of the rest.
2. Prior Art
Various types of arrow rests have been used in archery bows. The rests usually are mounted on the sidewall of the bow in the arrow window defined by the sidewall in the riser section of the bow. Certain of the rests are simple devices pasted or screwed to the window sidewall, while others are suspended in the window away from the sidewall in order to provide the desired arrow clearance, that is, to assure that the arrow when shot from the bow will not strike the sidewall and fly off the desired line of flight.
One preferred manner of suspending the arrow in the window away from the sidewall is to connect the rear end of the blade portion of the arrow rest on which the arrow shaft rests to a cross-bar which extends transversely behind the window and which, in turn, is slideably received in the rear end of a forwardly and rearwardly extending mounting block secured to the sidewall. With this arrangement, the blade portion of the rest can be adjustably spaced a desired distance from the sidewall.
However, it is also desired for optimal flight of the arrow from the bow that the arrow rest provide means for resisting the downward thrust exerted by the arrow as it is shot from the bow. For this purpose, resilient blades of metal, plastic or the like have been used. In other instances, stiff blades connected to coiled springs pinned to non-moving components of the rest have been used.
While such arrangements may be satisfactory for a fixed set of conditions, that is, a single type of bow using a single type of arrow, they are of little use when the propulsion force of the bow is changed, as is possible with compound bows, and/or the arrow is changed in diameter, flexibility, etc., as may be necessary for optimum arrow flight. Conventional arrow rests do not provide the capability of freely and easily adjusting the resistance of the arrow blade to downward deflection, particularly in a simple, inexpensive manner which is devoid of disadvantages.
Moreover, it is also desireable to be able to easily control the angle at which the rest blade projects upwardly into the window. The optimum angle of projection will depend on many factors and will change from arrow type to arrow type, etc. Hunting arrows with heavy bradheads, for example, usually require a different angle of projection than do lighter, faster arrows used for target archery.
It would be highly desireable to be able to change the angle of projection of the rest blade in a manner which is recordable and reproducible, so that as the archer switches from one type of archery use to another, the optimum angle of projection can always be set for the rest blade. Presently available archery arrow rests do not provide such a capability.